Sparring Kisses
by Kasumi Karen
Summary: Mikoto is scared because she thinks Asou is going to ask her to kiss him. She has never kissed anyone, maybe she could get some practice before the proposal. MIKOTO


_Name: Sparring Kisses  
Anime: School Rumble  
Rating: K+  
Timeline: Before manga chapter 194  
Characters: Mikoto & Hanai_

_Summary:  
Mikoto is scared because she thinks Asou is going to ask her to kiss him, she has never kissed anyone maybe she could get some practice before the proposal. MIKOTO&HANAI_

--- SPARRING KISSES ---

Hanai Haruki and Mikoto Sou were sparring in his family dojo, as they did almost every day.

Mikoto throw a punch directly to his face. He moved a little away, enough to let her arm pass right beside him. Taking advantage of her situation he grabbed her arm and throw her to the floor keeping the grip on her wrist and making her impossible to move without dislocating her shoulder.  
He smiled, she looked away.

"Miko-chan you are off today" he let her go

"Me off? Ha!" She performed another attack to him, that ended the same way that the previous one.

He gave her an 'I told you so' look

"Ok! you win Haruki" She sighed

They were alone, they aloud themselves to use their nicknames.  
With that last sentences the sparring was over and the two of them started to put away the training equipment and cleaning up the dojo. They talked about trivial stuff, but Hanai could tell that something was bothering her. She kept saying it was nothing but she has been her friend for almost all his life, she couldn't trick him.

The day was pretty hot for the season so they decided to sit at the back of the dojo to enjoy the fresh air. Hanai went to get a bottle of water while Mikoto took off the upper part of her 'gi' leaving just her pants and tank top. When he came back he had done the same, but he wasn't wearing any tshirt. He sat right beside her.

"Want some?" he offered her the bottle of water

She looked at the water which was in front of her face

"Tell me what's bothering you" he demanded and moved the bottle a little away from her

"Hey! nothing! just give me that" she moved forward to get it, at the same time he crushed the bottle with his hand making the water from inside go out and explode in Mikoto's face.

"Liar" he chuckled

"You are so dead Hanai!" She grabbed the bottle and emptied it in Hanai's head.

He laughed " Ok... Ok must be some girls stuff you'll have to discuss with your girl friends" he commented. He was worried about her friend but he new she was a girl and there were some issues he couldn't help her with. He gave her another bottle.

She drank and thought about his phrase. He was right, something was bothering her and was girl stuff. But she was such a tomboy she didn't even want to discuss it with her friends. They will probably mock her and give her stupid advices.  
Even though she didn't want to talk about it, the thing was bothering her. Maybe she should try to get some advice on it.

She looked at Hanai while drinking. Maybe she could ask him. She was 101% sure that any comment he could give her about the issue wouldn't hurt her. He was really caring when she opened up to him. Probably his advises would be stupid too but at least she could take it out.

She passed the bottle to him "Have you ever kissed someone Haruki?" She asked not looking at him. She already knew the answer, she was his best friend. If he had done something, she 'd have known.

"Pffffffffff" He spit it all out.

She giggled and waited for his answer

"Well... N...N..No, I mean... No" The topic made him a little nervous. He wondered why was she asking him that. Then it hit him. she had probably kissed Asou and wanted to tell him about it. "What is it like?"

She gave him a quizzed expression "What would I know!!" She said blushing and looking away.

"Oh! Sorry Miko-chan, I thought that you and Asou... 'cause you know, you are boyfriend and girlfriend... It's normal for couples to kiss..." he tried to fix the awkward situation.

She looked down "I Know, but we haven't" she finished "Yet" she sounded troubled

"What? Why! That Asou is so shy!!!. I can't believe this, what a dumb guy!! Do you want me to talk to him?" He fumed, he looked as if he was going to get Asou there and force him to kiss her.

She stopped him "No! It's not him... It's me" she trailed off

"What?" he was surprised. Mikoto was a girl, wasn't every girls dream to kiss the man they loved? Well, she was a bit of a tomboy. But she was a girl after all. He remembered when she used to be around her old tutor; She blushed all the time, made up any excuse to sit right beside him.

"I just... Don't know... I'm scared?" She looked at him for an answer "The thing is, today he asked me if we could talk tomorrow... I guess he is going to ask me to kiss him"

He brought his hand to her chin and examined her.  
She wasn't a girl who is regularly scared or at least the type who would admitted it. "That must be it... Just like when we went to summer camp, when we were 8, do you remember?"

"What? No I don't remember! what it has to do with this!" she sighed, _"ok the worst person to ask this"_ she thought

"Don't you remember you were afraid to jump from the 20 feet springboard!"

"I wasn't afraid, YOU WERE!!"

"I don't remember coming back alone from the big springboard without having jump"

"WHAT! I can't believe this! That was because if you came down alone, everybody was going to laugh at you! so I came back with you and we jumped together in the other springboards till you got the guts to go to the tall one" She was indignant

"Well but you couldn't say that looking down from that height wasn't scary!"

She punched him in the head

Ok asking Hanai was a stupid thing. She knew that even before asking. Then an idea popped in her mind "Wait!" she stopped

"What?" he said rubbing his new made bump

"At least it worked for you, right?" She looked at him with a plan in her head

"What?" He was clueless

"We should kiss Haruki!" she said as if was answering in a game show.

"WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT??" Now he was all red and his nose exploded with blood

"Oh Come on! That way tomorrow wouldn't be so frightening because I 'd have practiced it. Like training" she smiled the plan seamed perfect. She truly trusted him. This way she could get used to kissing and tomorrow wont be afraid to face Asou's proposal. The best part no one could see this and she'd never tell it to anyone.

"No Way!" he denied terminant

"What! no way you owe me all those jumps!!!"

"But I did your homework that whole year for that!" he complained

"Oh pleaaseee Haruki, Come on! No one is watching! No one Will know this I promise!... It could be useful to practice for when you'd get a chance with Yakumo" she encouraged him, even knowing that was likely never to happen.

He grabbed her hands "Miko-chan, I can't do this! Look I've been practicing with a mirror you know, and watched a few movies... you should do the same"

She pictured the image of him practicing with the mirror and laughed "heheh A mirror! You are so dumb!!!"

"What?! At least I have some practice!"

"Yeah right, Kissing must feel like sucking a peace of glass!"

Now that she put it that way he was a little ashamed

"Miko-chan, the first kiss it´s an important thing. You just can´t do it like this!" he was a hopeless romantic

she sighed "Haruki, do you remember your first fight"

He adopted a wining pose "Oh yeah I could never forget it, it was with that Houjo kid, from de Hayama dojo. It was hard but I ended up wining" he smiled "But what does it have to do with this?"

"See! that wasn´t your first fight, your first fight might have been with me or some other kid at the dojo, sparring. This it´s just like that, this kiss wouldn´t count. Probably we won´t even remember it!" she gave him a thumb up.

That didn´t convince Hanai, his face showed it.

"I can't believe this! I've always been for you!"

_"oh no, no she was planing on making him feel guilty"_ he thought

"I jumped with you from all those springboards 'cause you were afraid! I've carried you around in that stupid cart when you were injured in the school trip! and..."

_"Oh no! she was going to use it!"_ he closed her eyes and frowned, as if he was about to receive a punch in the face

"And don't make me even remember you the flute issue" she played offended. She knew he could never say no to her when she remembered the times when they were kids and she always supported him, in extreme ways.

"Ok" he sighed

"Good" She clapped. She loved to win, a fight, a contest, a quarrel, anything.

He was sitting on the deck, she was standing on the grass. She bended her back a little to be at his eyes level and looked at his mouth. She blushed. He blushed even more and stood still. She moved forward and started to wonder if this was a good plan. She could tell she was a little nervous, even if it was just Hanai.  
He gulped, he was really nervous. She could feel his breath on her lips. They have never been this close. He started to feel her lips brush against his.  
Well he was going to experiment a kiss. What Mikoto had proposed him was a bit weird, but at some point it made some sense. They were so close, he always helped her studying when they had an exam, this was just like that, he closed his eyes. She didn't and pushed a little bit more. His lips were so soft, she felt her pulse accelerating. And she moved her head back breaking the kiss, which was more like a quick peck.

She looked at Hanai blushing deeply "So?"

He chuckled

"WHAT!,What are you laughing at" Now she had done it she was a little ashamed of her proposal and he was laughing at her. She got a little angry

"You are such a tomboy! That's not a kiss! You should do the mirror and movies thing" He have never kissed anyone but he knew that kiss wasn't a lovers one.

"Shut up Hanai! That was a kiss, lips touched, that's it" she folded her arms.

"Poor Asou" he was sorry for his school buddy, she was a total disaster when it came to love.

"Ok let's try your way Casanova!" she challenged him.

"HA! You know I wouldn't do this but, But this poor guy, he needs me!"

"Oh Shut up!"

He stood up to be in front of her. She moved back involuntarily. His attitude had changed.  
Hanai was a huge fan of romantic movies. He had seen this a hundred times, he had practice it trillion times, he just had to do it, for real. He brushed back his still wet hair with his hands, to look more serious.

He grabbed her hand in his.

She looked at his hand.

"Mikoto"

As soon as she heard her name she changed her sight to his face

"You look beautiful tonight" he was posessed by Dicaprio in Titanic, Swayze in Ghost and Bogart in Casablanca

She blushed deeply, somehow captivated by this character he was playing.

He moved his hand to her face, with a finger grabbed a thread of hair that escaped from her ponytail and was freely dancing in front of her face, he hide it behind her ear.

She looked at him in the eyes, he really meant it or so it seemed. Her heart started to beat faster.

He moved forward and a little down to be at her level "Close your eyes" he whispered and she obeyed him.

She felt his lips meeting hers, while his hand rested on her neck. He tilted his head a little brushing her lips again.  
His hand left hers and his arm embraced her from her waist, pressing her against his chest.  
She could feel his lips a little tighter on her and starting to open. She wondered what was he doing. She felt the tip of his tongue caressing her inner lip.  
She remembered, he was trying to put his tongue in her mouth. That part of kissing seemed disgusting but this was training, so she slowly started to open her mouth to let him access.  
While the tip of his tongue finished playing with her upper lip, he moved the hand from her neck and grabbed her arm attempting to make her hug him. She got the message and did it. His hand returned to draw little circles on the nape of her neck.  
Hanai really knew what he was doing, she should have payed more attention to those cheesy films. She was starting to understand while people kissed so much.  
He had moved his head again to have better access to her mouth and his tongue stroked inside her freely. She felt she had to do something and started motioning her own tongue to play with him.  
Her response made him a little nervous and as a reflect he hugged her tightly.  
A couple of seconds later he ran out of tricks to do to her, so he repeated them all again. Feeling that they should stay like that a little more.  
They continued the kissing for a couple of minutes. She was starting to get it and was definitively enjoying it, but they had to get some air so they broke the kiss.  
She slowly opened her eyes, to find a dazed Hanai hugging her protectively and looking straight into her eyes. She moved her head a little forward to do it again, but he broke the embrace and sat down with his legs crossed.  
He had to brake the moment because it was going a little too far for him. He had to sit.

She blushed again, this time a little embarrassed about her attempt to continue the 'training'.

"Well... That... That's ... A Kiss, ... I guess..." he commented nervous

"Yeah, I mean... That felt...I mean, OK" She was more nervous than him, she sat beside him.

They stood like that in their own thoughts for a couple of minutes.

"Well I guess I'll be heading back home" she stood up

Now that the heat of the moment was over he stood up too "Ok... Ok I'll walk you"

"It's.. next door" now everything was awkward

"I know... I mean, I'll open you the door" he scratched the back of his head.

"Yeah" she giggled nervously

The two of them moved to the exit of Hanai's dojo trying not to make eye contact.

"Well!" she looked at him for goodbye

He stared at her. She blushed. He noticed "I mean bye!"

"Yes bye" she stood a couple of seconds in her place and then turned around

He gulped "Good luck tomorrow"

"What?" she remembered "Yeah, Thanks for the sparring" she kicked herself mentally for saying that, It sounded like she was talking about their 'kissing practice'. She moved away

"Anytime" He kicked himself mentally for saying that out loud for the same reason.

Things had turned pretty uncomfortable for them. Mikoto and Hanai returned to their houses and prayed to forget their first kiss.

Luckily for them their desired would be granted; they would certainly forget their first kiss, but they will always remember their second one.

---THE END---

~ Karen K.


End file.
